Atlantic Crossing Day 15 13:44.6N 52:16.1W

Stargazer
Andy & Jo
Mon 13 Mar 2023 19:05

Atlantic Crossing Day 15  - Monday  13th March 2023

 

What the..?

 

It was 0300 last night, I was on watch. I’d just checked the course, sails & all the usual things. Laying down on the cockpit seat whilst listening to the sounds of the boat, I must have dozed off for a brief time as the next thing I knew, I’d opened my eyes and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I white, ghostly pair of hands hanging onto the lower guardrail on the port side deck; shocked, I jumped up wondering what the… Being on my feet, I became fully awake and saw that the mate had pegged out some scrubbing/exfoliating gloves on the rail –it had been sea water shower time the evening before. Phew, that was all it was…

 

Back to reality. Last night, the seas became a little less choppy, the wind calmed a little but we were still able to hold 4kn. On my first off-watch the engine had charged the batteries in a couple of hours and we’d made a decent amount of water. The mate had unrolled a little more genoa and all was very well. So it continued throughout the night.

 

At daybreak, the seas calmed some more but the wind increased to 17 kn. This is what it’s been like most of today-fast sailing in one of the best seas we’ve had so far with the sun shining (another very hot day). The only fly in the ointment was me spotting a soft hank on the number 4 which was twisted in a figure of eight and needed to be sorted out – a quick trip to the foredeck (with all the mate’s usual concerns) and the job was done. No wonder it had been a bit of a pig to hoist last time.

 

The weather forecast is for the same as we’re currently having, possibly even seeing us all the way into Rodney Bay – this is wonderful news and if true we feel deserved of it, especially after the pretty rough start and being becalmed in the middle.

 

Onboard, I’ve been doing various navigation things and boat husbandry whilst the mate has baked some bread. And! I’m delighted to announce that it’s delicious – well done mate!

 

We’ll carry on with our usual watch routines tonight, which now includes two hours of engine to charge up and make water (2000 to 2200). Tomorrow, I should be able to report a sensible distance left too run and offer thoughts on our ETA. As for today, we’ve had another 140NM run; this would have been higher but the wind calmed a little yesterday for a few hours.

 

Fingers crossed, we’ll be seeing the Pitons quite soon.